Sudoku – An Excellent Food for Brain

Amongst games and puzzles, I love sudoku the most. Reasons are many. Basically being a sedentary person, I like activities that rarely demand physical movements. 🙂 So, I like reading, eating, sleeping and solving a sudoku. However the main reason is, a sudoku keeps my mind fresh and brain sharp. [I think so :)]. However I was under the impression for so many days that it is of only one type, i.e. 9 x 9 grid and with numerals from 1 to 9. Recently I came to know that there are many types of sudoku. Here I give an account of what I came to know. (Courtesy: Wikipedia)

Standard Sudoku

It is the commonest form containing a grid of 9 x 9 with 9 grids inside containing again grids of 3 x 3. You have to fill each row, column and the 3 x 3 grid with numbers from 1 to 9 so that none of them should be repeated in any row, column or grid of 3 x 3.

Variants of Standard Sudoku

Just like 9 x 9 grid standard sudoku, there can be grids of 4 x 4 with smaller grids of 2 x 2 inside, or 5 x 5 grids called Logi-5, 6 x 6 grid with 2 x 3 regions and 7 x 7 grid too. The smaller variants with less than 9 x 9 grid are called children’s sudoku, especially the 4 x 4 grid, because they are easy to solve. They are also called Mini Sudoku because of their miniature size. It is not the case that only smaller grids than 9 x 9 are available. There are larger grids available too, e.g. 12 x 12 grids with 4 x 3 smaller regions or 16 x 16 grids and even 25 x 25 and 100 x 100 grids. Wow!

Alphabetical Sudoku

An alphabetical sudoku is called Wordoku. It is same type of puzzle, unless the letters form a spelling. Among these a variation presents a word along a row, column or diagonal, so that the word is determined beforehand and helps in solving the puzzle further. The wordoku may also contain more words, other than the primary word.

Hypersudoku

A hypersudoku, also called NRC Sudoku or Windoku or 4-Square Sudoku is the most popular type of sudoku. Though the layout of this type is the same as that of the standard sudoku, its interior area is more which should be filled with digits from 1 to 9. However, the solving rules differ slightly, because of overlapping squares. The overlapping squares offer more info which reduces the possibilities in other squares. In this type of sudoku, the emphasis is more on overlap and scanning the squares than rows and columns.

Duidoku

Duidoku is played by two players on a 4 x 4 board containing four regions with 4 squares. The game follows the regular sudoku rules with four numbers. Each player has to place one number consecutively in such a way that so as not to make a prohibited move. The first player making a prohibited move loses.

Sudoku is an utterly fun game with a lot of mental exercise to keep our brain in good condition. Playing such games is always good for keeping diseases like memory loss and Alzheimer’s disease away. So, I recommend you to play sudokus and keep healthy mentally.